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Monday, October 13, 2014

The wonderful thing about the end of the cycling season is that it is a time for riders to get back what they lost during the season. Take last year for instance. Chris Horner came out of nowhere to win the Vuelta a Espana after a disappointing season. Perhaps the Vuelta and the Worlds would be a place for the US to shine in 2014. After all going into the Vuelta we had the defending champ.

Vuelta a Espana
Well at least the US was supposed to have the defending champ in the race. Poor Horner got sick in the summer and had to take a cortisone shot. By the time the Vuelta rolled around the shot was still messing with his blood levels enough that he could not be cleared for the start of the Vuelta and so as quickly as that Horner's attempt at defending the Vuelta were dashed. Still this looked to be the best race of the year. Both Alberto Contador and Chris Froome were looking for a positive end to their disappointing seasons and you had other big named riders in the mix as well. It didn't disappoint and neither did Contador. For my money he's the best cyclist I've seen. Now like everyone else from his generation he's been busted for doping, but it doesn't matter to me. Just like Lance won those 7 straight Tours, Contador has been an amazingly competitive rider no matter what the race. He always tries to win and that's what I've always liked about him.

Overall

1

Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo

81:25:05

2

Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky

0:01:10

3

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team

0:01:50

4

Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha

0:03:25

5

Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team

0:04:48

6

Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team

0:09:30

7

Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp

0:10:38

8

Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano

0:11:50

9

Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale

0:12:50

10

Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits

0:13:02

51

Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin Sharp

2:13:46

Now Andrew Talansky is considered to be an up and comer. He crashed out of the Tour and I'm not sure what the expectations were for him in the Vuelta, but we'll have to wait until next year to see if he can do better.

Points

1

John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Shimano

169

pts

2

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team

146

3

Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo

145

4

Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky

139

5

Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha

117

Mountains

1

Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caja Rural - Seguros RGA

58

pts

2

Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo

45

3

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team

40

4

Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida

33

5

Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky

33

Road World Championships
So it would all come down to the world championships. The US elite men never do that well here, except in the time trial, and they didn't do any better this year. As usual the women were in the mix and fighting for medals.

Women's Junior Individual Time Trial

1

Macey Stewart (Australia)

0:20:08.39

2

Pernille Mathiesen (Denmark)

0:00:10.79

3

Anna-Leeza Hull (Australia)

0:00:13.31

Men's Junior Individual Time Trial

1

Lennard Kamna (Germany)

0:36:13.49

2

Adrien Costa (United States Of America)

0:00:44.66

3

Michael Storer (Australia)

0:00:58.11

Men's U23 Individual Time Trial

1

Campbell Flakemore (Australia)

0:43:49.94

2

Ryan Mullen (Ireland)

0:00:00.48

3

Stefan Kueng (Switzerland)

0:00:09.22

Women's Elite Individual Time Trial

1

Lisa Brennauer (Germany)

0:38:48.16

2

Anna Solovey (Ukraine)

0:00:18.68

3

Evelyn Stevens (United States Of America)

0:00:21.25

Men's Elite Individual Time Trial

1

Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)

0:56:25.52

2

Tony Martin (Germany)

0:00:26.23

3

Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands)

0:00:40.64

Women's Junior Road Race

1

Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark)

2:02:59

2

Sofia Bertizzolo (Italy)

3

Agnieszka Skalniak (Poland)

Men's Junior Road Race

1

Jonas Bokeloh (Germany)

3:07:00

2

Alexandr Kulikovskiy (Russian Federation)

3

Peter Lenderink (Netherlands)

Men's U23 Road Race

1

Sven Erik Bystrom (Norway)

4:32:39

2

Caleb Ewan (Australia)

0:00:07

3

Kristoffer Skjerping (Norway)

Women's Elite Road Race

1

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France)

3:29:21

2

Lisa Brennauer (Germany)

3

Emma Johansson (Sweden)

Men's Elite Road Race

1

Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland)

6:29:07

2

Simon Gerrans (Australia)

0:00:01

3

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain)

All in all it was a very disappointing year for US cycling. Hopefully 2015 will be better.